F 44 
.K2 W5 
Copy 2 




AN 



d9 



DELIVERED IN 



KEICNE, N. H, 



JULY 4, 1876, 



AT THE REQUEST OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT, 



WILLIAM ORNE WHITE. 




KEENE : 
SENTINEL PRINTING COMPANY. BOOK AND JOB PRINTEKS. 

1876. 



AN 



gistoricnl ^UmBB^ 



DELIVERED IN 



KEENE, N. H., 



— ON- 



JUJLY 4=, 1876 



AT THE REQUEST OF THE CITY dOVEMMENT, 



WILLIAM OME WPIITE. 




KEENE : 
SENTINEL PRINTING COMPANY, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 

1876. 






8MI«< lUtaloWB 



f 



CITY OF KEENE. 



In the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. 



A RESOLUTION in relation to printing tlie Historical Address of 
iT ^ William O. White, July 4111. 

" ct"^ Besolved by the City Councils of the City of Keene, as follows : 

' -^ That the thanks of the City Government be presented to the Rev- 

r "^ EREND William O. White, for the address deUvered by him on the 
-^ 4th inst. 

That a copy of the same be requested for the Press, and that two 
thousand copies, in pamphlet form, he printed for the use of the cit- 
izens ; one copy of the same t0'l->e »f^rwariMl^'to Wasliington, in ac- 
cordance with the recommendation of the President, and one copy 
to the clerk of the County Courts. 

CHARLES SHRIGLEY, 
President Common Council. 
l;^ t^ E. FARRAR, 

Mayor. 
A true copy. — Attest : 

H. S. MARTIN, 

City Clerk pro tern. 



ADDRESS. 



'Wo are all an hundred 3'ears old to-daj. For this day, at 
least, we identify ourselves with our countr}', and we know 
that it will not be the privilege of the youngest, any more 
than of the oldest among us, to lend our bodil}^ presence at the 
next centennial. So there is, indeed, a significant sense in 
which, to-day, we are all of one age. I do not forget that' 
Deacon John Whitman, of Bridgewater, Mass., lived to be 
one hundred and seven years old — but upon what conditions ? 
His son testifies that no matter what terrific events were occur- 
ring in the world, no matter what instances of depravit}' were 
reported in private life, the most vehement expression of dis- 
approbation which he could recall hearing the patriarch use 
was, "-Oh strange !" Now I think it may be conceded that the 
Young America of Keene will hardly be willing thus rigidly to 
rule their spirits. We shall hardly find them bartering all 
their interjectional exclamations for the mild regimen of 
'•'Oh strange !" even to secure the hope of living past an hun- 
dred 3'ears. 

Resigning, therefore, to the unborn the privilege of being 
eager and active participants in the next centennial, we stretch 
one hand to the shadowy forms of the past, and the other to 
the shadowy forms of the future, content to be, to-day, only 
a connecting link between the two. 

The pity is that this call of Congress and the President, for 
some glimpse of historical research to-da}', on the part of the 
various localities in our land, should not be more generally 
heeded. In any one instance, there may not be much evoked 
from the records of the past, to stir the sympathies of the 
listeners. But when we think of the country as a whole, 
when we consider all our cities and villages, we are reminded 



6 

of the coral reefs on the coast of Australia, a thousand miles 
in extent, the combined work of innumerable myriads of mi- 
croscopic creatures, each one of which has performed his 
indispensable part in this marvellous architecture. Thus each 
contribution, however humble, to the history of any village in 
the land, is so much added to that historic reef, into which, 
with microscopic eyes, the investigator of future centuries 
will be glad to pry. The time ma^' come when we of this 
generation shall be laughed at for thinking ourselves so wise. 
They that come after us will wish that we had been more spar- 
ing of our theories, and had been more patient in recording 
facts. The theories which an Egyptian astronomer held five 
thousand years ago, it may not greatly concern us to know, 
but his record of the appearance of the star Sirius, once more, 
after having been concealed by the sun, enables us, with one 
stroke of the pen, to add seventeen hundred and sevent_y years 
to the already venerable years of the third p3Tamid of Gizeh. 
So let us refresh our minds with a few of the incidents that 
are connected with our own story as a frontier settlement, as 
a village, and subsequently as a city, assuring posterity, in 
advance, of our thanks, should it add brighter lustre to the 
name of Keene than all which it has worn before. 

Yet it is hard to divert our minds even for a moment, from 
Philadelphia, to-day. 

In imagination, we are all under the shadow of Indepen- 
dence Hall ; we hear the charge, as of yore : "Proclaim liberty 
throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." We 
see its avenues re-peopled with those patriots of an elder day. 
"How long will it all last?" is the whispered prayer in their 
minds, as they think of the germ of national freedom which 
they are patiently committing to the soil. We turn our eyes 
awa^' for a moment, and, as we look again, behold their 
prayer answered in the bursting from the soil of the "Century 
Plant" of American Liberty, its petals wet with dew drops 
from heaven, — the oppressed from other lands, aye, even from 
our own borders, all clasping hands exultingly beneath its 
beneficent shelter ! 

It was through the legislation of Massachusetts, in July 
1732, that the proprietors of the Upper Ashuelot, (for thus 



the tract was designated,) derived their rights. On June 
26th. 1734, (one hundred and nineteen years before the ol)serv- 
ance of the town's centennial in 1853, which cele1)ration com- 
memorated, strictly, only the one hundredth anniversary of its 
charter under its present name,) we see these proprietors 
meeting in Concord, Mass., -'at the house of Mr. Jonathan 
Hall, inn-holder. " In the following September, a very few of 
these proprietors reach the unfrequented wilderness of their 
choice, bv the way of Northfield, Mass., its nearest civilized 
neighbor." In the year 1740, they find themselves, upon the 
adjustment of the disputed boundary line between Massachu- 
setts and New Hampshire, -excluded from the province of the 
Massachusetts Bay, to which they alwaies supposed themselves 
to belong, " and vainly beseeching the powers that be, that 
''they may be annexed to the said Massachusetts Province." 

It would be a great piece of historic treason, to imagine 
our beautiful valley, as being first settled only a hundred years 
before the commemoration in 1853, for it was in fact as early 
as the year 1736 that Main street eularged its borders, the 
following vote being then passed : "Forasmuch as the Town 
Street is judged to be to narrow conveniently to accomidate 
the Propriators, That every Propriator whose Lotts Ly on the 
West side of the street, that will leave out of his Lott at the 
front, or next adjoining to sd street, four rods in depth, the 
wdiole bredth of their respective Lotts. to accomidate the sd 
street, shall have it made up in quantity in the Rear, or other 
end of their Lotts." What would these wide-hearte'l men 
have said of some of the streets laid out a century later by 
their successors? 

There soon steps upon the scene a helpful man indeed, 
'•the worthv Mr. Jacob Bacon," as he is designated ; the Clerk 
and Treasurer of the Proprietors three months before May 1st, 
1738, when he "was chosen by every vote," as a suitable per- 
son to settle in the ministry of this place. 

In his letter of acceptance, he says "But, with this, I de- 
sire your candor in attending upon my administrations, con- 
sidering yt I am but a man Liable to ye Like passions, temp- 
tations? faiUngs and imperfection with other men, and indeed, 
more in ve way of Satan's malice, than you or any else are, 



but those who are engaged in ye hke cause against his publick 
interest, as ye ministers of Christ are." It is a firm, round 
hand that "worthy" Mr. Bacon writes, a model for a Scribe. 
No wonder that he remained Clerk of the Proprietors, as long 
as he remained their pastor. He appears to have continued 
with them until 1747, nine years after his settlement, when 
they were all on the eve of abandoning the place to the 
Indians. He was one of a class numbering thirt3'-four, who 
graduated at Harvard College in 1731. Among the twelve 
ministers who belonged to the class, I notice the name of my 
mother's great-grandfather. Rev. John Sparhawk of Salem, 
Mass. How different their lot! The ""First Church" in 
Salem, had been gathered more than a century before ! It is 
not hard to imagine Jacob Bacon as writing to his Salem 
classmate concerning his "• perils by heathen," and " perils in 
the wilderness." " Come over into Macedonia, and help us, 
Oh, John Sparhawk." may he not have written? 

And after the discovery in 1745, of the lifeless body of 
Deacon Josiah Fisher, near where the late Mr. Charles Lam- 
son's bark-house is, we may imagine him writing thus : " Ah, 
Sparhawk, little can you dream what a sorrow has befallen 
us here ! My right-hand man, Deacon Josiah Fisher, is gone ! 
You will scarce believe me, when I teU you hoiv. His lifeless 
form was found on the road over which he was taking his cow to 
pasture, and I shudder to tell you that it had been also scalped ! 
There lay, now silent and cold, that face which had so often 
beamed upon us from the Sanctuary. It was but j^esterday 
that he had said : ' ' Let us take courage ! Having put our 
hand to the plough, let us not look back." "And now the 
Lord hath gathered him, as ripened wheat, into his garner." 

And again, hear him addressing his classmate, the following 
year, just after the tragedy, which culminated in the slaughter 
of others of his flock. "John Sparhawk, I can sa}- with 
Jeremy : ' Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a 
fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the 
slain of the daughter of m}' people ! ' Again hath the Indian 
enemy been let loose, like Satan, seeking whom he ma}' de- 
vour. He stealthily pursued good mistress M-cKenny, stab- 
bing her in the back, as she, unconscious soul, was wearily 



stepping toward her barn, to milk lier cow. And John Bullard^ 
moreover, hath been fatally shot. Running from his barn, he 
was nigh to grasp the gate of the fort, when the cruel foe 
took deadly aim at his back, and he gave up the ghost. But 
Ephraim Dorman hath received from the Lord the mantle of 
Samson, for he prevailed marvellously in a fierce wrestle with 
a stalwai-t savage, and went off victorious." Let me add that 
whenever these imaginary letters actually come into my hands, 
they shall surely find their way into the archives of Keene ! 
As "worthy" Jacob Bacon, walked from his church, near 
where the Robinson farmhouse now stands, past the fort, near 
where that courtly gentleman, the late Dr. Charles G. Adams, 
so long resided — that luckless fort, so succorless for John Bul- 
lard, — and as he glanced across the road to the McKenu}- 
house on the sight of Mr. E. C. Thaj-er's mansion, — as he 
walked over such a road, how vividly the imager}- of the Old 
Testament must have occurred to hun ! With the Psalmist, he 
must have said, *•' My soul is among hons," and he must have 
also rejoiced that /ie too could say to Jehovah, "-Thou hast 
known my soul in adversities." 

How all this stern participation in the hardships of his flock, 
must have endeared this picturesque valle}- to him onl}- the 
more. And when, just after all the colonists had forsaken the 
settlement, he learned that scarce ami:hing was left behind 
them by the Indians, but smoking ruins ; even the church 
turned to ashes, with its "pulpit, and table and Deacon's 
seat, built all completely workmanhke," his heart must have 
sunk within him. 

Nor could his subsequent ministry in Plymouth, Mass., ter- 
minating just a hundred j'cars ago, and lasting twenty-seven 
years, have ever weaned him wholly from the exciting frontier 
life in which he was evidently so practical a helper. • He died 
in Rowley, Mass., in 1787, at the age of eighty-one, haAT.ng 
preached a while after leaAing Pl3-mouth, in what is now the 
town of Carver. 

To his latest days, we can imagine how young and old gath- 
ered around him to hear him describe the discovery of Mark 
Ferry, the hermit, who in his terror of the Indians, had crawled 
from his cave near the river-bank into the boughs of an over- 



10 

hangiug tree ; aud to listen to bis recital of the picturesque 
career of Nathan Blake, who, resisting an impulse secretly to 
stone his captor to death, was advanced to a vacant chieftain- 
ship among the Canadian Indians, gained at times the mastery 
over them in athletic sports, and was at length released after 
two gears' ca])tivity, surviving until the year 1811, and faUing 
but seven months short of being a centenarian. A lad once 
told me in a sunilar case, that a man had become "almost a cen- 
turion ! " Mr. Nathan Blake, both among Indians and white 
men, had certainly long enjoyed the honor of being a sort of 
centm-ion, even if he were not quite a centenarian. 

After the three or four years' vacation granted to the Upper 
Ashuelot settlers by the plots of their Indian enemies, we find 
these colonists returning in 1750 and 1751, and wearing in 
1753 the coi-porate name of Keene, a name which the late Hon. 
Salma Hale, in his terse, but invaluable '"Annals," conjectures 
to have been borroAved l\y Governor AVentworth from Sir Ben- 
jamin Keene, who at about this time, was "• Minister from 
England to Spain." 

The late Eev. Aaron Hall writes: *'The inhabitants of 
Swanze}- and Keene, after the}' returned from their dispersion 
on account of tiie wars, desirous of having the gospel preached 
among them, however they were few in number ; accordingly 
the two towns covenanted together to hire preaching in con- 
nection." Rev. John L. Sible}', the indefatigable librarian of 
Harvard College, a rare and accurate antiquarian, writes me 
that on April 21, 1753, the churches of Keene and Swanzey 
met at the school house in Swanzey, and united in installing 
Rev. Ezra Carpenter, who had at a previous time been the 
minister of Hull for twentj-five years. He was re-installed, 
(and this re-instalhng. Rev. Aaron Hall alludes to) Oct. 4, 
1753, when the two towns agreed to be one religious society, 
bearing the expenses equally for three years.' Afterwards the 
union was continued by annual assessments till 1760, when 
Keene voted not to join with the people of Swanze}' in main- 
taining the worship of God ; the minister having the choice of 
places, preferred Swanze}'. The tradition, adds Mr. Sible}', 
is, " that he was dismissed from Swanzey about 1765 (though 
another authority says 1769) at his own request, and the eccle- 



11 

siastical council h;ul but just left the meeting house when a 
tornado struck it mid turned it one-quarter round, so that it 
fticed the East instead of the South." 

What omen was attached to this right-about-face movement 
from the skies, we do not learn. Mr. Carpenter died at Wal- 
pole, Aug. 26, 1785. When, in 1753, Eev. Ezra Carpenter 
began to preach here, a rude fabric had been erected that sea- 
son, where Mr. Reuben Stewart's house now stands, but in De- 
cember the people voted to build a meeting house forty-five 
feet long and thirty-five wide, several rods West of Mr. Henry 
Colony's present residence on West street. In Januar}- it ap- 
pears to have been removed to a spot near where the Soldiers' 
^Monument now stands. The removal appears to have been 
made '"in consideration of the unfitness of the gi'ound, and 
the exposedness to fire, and to the enemy, in case of war." 
The "worthy" 'Sir. Clement Sumner was ordained as minister 
of Keene. June 11. 1761, remaining their pastor for eleven 
years. Kev. Dr. Barstow, in his " Ilalf-ceutury Sermon" says 
that " he was a graduate of Yale College in 1758, and that in 
1772, in consequence of difficulties, he was dismissed at his 
own request, by an ecclesiastical council." 

On the 18th of February, 1778. Rev. Aaron Hall, a gradu- 
ate of Yale College in 1772, entered upon his thirty-six years' 
ministr}" of peace and joy, going in and out among his people 
like a brother beloved. The inhabitants have scarcely been 
anchored twenty-one years after their return, when the cloud of 
war is again seen hea\ily rising, this time over the whole country. 
From the Pro\incial papers published by the New Hampshire 
Historical Society, it appears that the population of Keene in 
1775 was but 756, of whom 31 out of the 171 males between 
16 and 50 years of age, were in the army. It is gratifying to 
notice that no '' negroes or slaves for life" are reported from 
Keene, while P^xeter reports 36. and Somersworth. wath a pop- 
ulation of but 965, reports 30, and Winchester And Walpole 
10 each, and even Dubhn, 1. The town of Surrj-, according 
to the Provincial papers, reports seven •• parsons" as " gone 
in the ai-my," a liberal proportion of the cloth, one would think, 
for a population of 215, and suggesting the idea that the town 
might be willing to spare a few of them. But the enigma is 



12 

solved wheu we find Lancaster, Ilawke, and Boscaweu all 
sending their parsons, and no persons. 

The Adjutant-General's Reports indicate that as earl}' as 
1775, Col. Josiah Willard, of Keene, was at the head of a reg- 
iment marching to Crown Point. William Ellis appears as 
Captain, and Benjamin Ellis, as 2d Lieutenant of the Third 
N. H. Regiment, in 1777, both of Keene. 

It is a significant fact that the one hundred and thirty-three 
names which the State papers report as signing the agreement 
to " oppose with arms the hostile proceedings of the Brit- 
ish fleet and armies," reads as if it were copied from our pres- 
ent voting lists. We find ourselves in a wilderness of Blakes 
and Metcalfs, and Ellises and Crossfields and Nimses and 
Wheelers and Wilders and Briggses, &c., while the smaller 
list of thirteen who refused to sign, has scarcely a repre- 
sentative among us. Captain Eliphalet Briggs, though dying 
in Keene, of small pox, at the age of fort^'-one, in 1776, had 
already been in the army, and had been sent delegate from 
Keene, on August 2d of that year, to consult at Walpole 
with delegates from other towns, concerning the public safet^y. 
Our local antiquarian, (William S. Briggs, Esq.,) his gxeat 
grandson, tells me that he well remembers "■ Eliakim Nims" 
('•'■ Captain," all called him) as he went the round of the streets, 
a ready rhymer. Seated, like a Turk, on the table, he would 
tell the story of Bunker Hill over and over again, to the 
charmed ears of the children, his voice waxing pathetic, as 
these words came slowly forth : ''But alas, our ammunition 
failed," and deepening in impressiveness as he added, "When 
we went into battle, there stood m}- brother, close at my side, 
but after the firing began, m}- brother was to be seen never- 
more." This Eliakim Nims once resided in the cottage for- 
merly occupied by Mr. Lucien B. Page. And in this connec- 
tion it may be interesting to know, that there is a well-supported 
tradition, that Mr. Luther Nurse's barn, on Beech Hill, was 
' ' raised " by one Wheeler, on tlie very day of the battle of 
Bunker Hill. There, then, towering far above us, is our mon- 
ument of that battle. " Zach Tufts," known b}^ some per- 
sons as Morgan Tufts, because he was one of Morgan's Rifle- 
men, is well remembered still ; a man, one blow from whose 



13 

brawny fist, was long a terror to any interloper who dared tQ 
play any mischievous pranks when the removal of a building 
was going on. Ebenezer Carpenter, J. P. Blake and others, 
are also recalled. *Mrs. Betsey Houghton — now within less 
than ten j-ears of the full centuv}' of years to which her mother, 
Mrs. John Leonard, attained, twenty-one ^^ears ago — graphi- 
call}' recalls Capt. John Houghton, her husband's father, as 
he was wont to tell of his march to Bennington, and the big 
cheese at one ftirm bouse on the road, which he was fired with 
an ambition to discuss, but which held siege, both against love 
and mone}', and 3'ielded only when he made signal for somq 
of his soldiers to approach. Nathaniel Kingsbury and Dan-, 
iel Kingsbury and Aaron Wilson, were all Revolutionary sol-j 
diers ; and the}- all have descendants still among lis. Sila^ 
Perry, I met in 1851, and followed him to the grave in 1852. 
He lived to the age of 89. He came to Keene at about thq 
age of 30, having enlisted in the war from Westminster, Mass.. 
He was wont sadly to recount, how it fell to his lot to be one 
of the guard at the execution of Major Andre. Once more 
the name of " Bacon," gleams before us, as we find that thq 
Revolutionary lieutenant, Oliver Bacon of JaSre}', by thq 
testimony of our fellow citizen, Gen. James Wilson, who hap- 
pily helped him out of a law suit, was a son of our Rev. Ja- 
cob Bacon, the well-beloved pioneer pastor of Upper Ash- 
uelot. 

The exploit at the battle of Bennington, resulting in the 
capture, b}' Josiah Richardson and Joshua Durant, of three 
Hessians, is familiar to those who have studied Hale's f Annal^ 
as faithfull}' as they should. The most vivid incident, however^ 
connected with our part in the Revolutionary war, is reported 
in the same work, where Captain Dorman calls on Captain 
Isaac Wyman, giving him the news from Concord, in April '75, 
and adding, " What shall be done?" The inhabitants meet, 
by Captain Wyman's direction, " on the green;" Capt. Wy- 

*Mr. Abel Blake vividly recalls Lieut. Samuel Heaton, who lived on Marlboro' 
street, in the house below Mr. Cole's residence. 

t The annalist himself died November 19, 1866, in his 80th year, leaving two 
children, Hon. Geo. S. Hale, a successful and greatly iTusted advocate, in Bos- 
ton, and Mrs. Sarah, widow of the late Hon. Harry Hibbai-d, M. C, of Bath, New 
Hampshire. 



14 

man is chosen leader, and ''though far advanced in years, 
cheerfully consents to go." Thirty volunteers are forthcom- 
ing. At sunrise next day, the}' meet, too early to be cheered 
bj^ the good word from Gen. Bellows and others of Walpole, 
" Keene has shown a noble spirit," as they hasten on in the 
track of the Keene party. 

But of the hardships endured by the women and children 
who were left at home at tli£ time of the Revolution, we, at 
this daj', can form little conception. A lady once jrointed me 
to the spot, in Winchester, which was the scene of her grand- 
mother's hax-dships. Her mother had heard from her the story 
full often : " Your father," she would sa}-. " left his hoe in the 
potato hill, and was off for battle at once upon the sum- 
mons." ''' But what shall we do, the little children and I, who 
are left behind, when winter threatens ? " " Kill the cow, and 
have it salted down, when cold weather begins." But when, 
scarce a month afterwards, the cow was found dead on the 
edge of the forest, the poor woman's heart was broken, and 
as she sounded her lament in the ears of a friendl}' neighbor, 
he rephed, as they walked through the woods to the spot where 
he buried the cow, " It's no use. Ma'am, crying for spilt 
milk." This loser of the cow was the great-grandmother of 
a much respected resident of this place, Mrs. Farnum F. 
Lane. 

" Do you remember about the Revolutionar}' war?" I said to 
the late Mrs. Dorcas Rice, of Jatl'rey, three years since, she 
then being almost one hundred and four years old. ''■1 re- 
member it," she replied, "• because mother took on so bad when 
father went away to the war." Thus, we tind a child's remem- 
berance of a mother's tears over her sacrifice to her country, 
lasting well nigh an hundred years ! 

When you are walking, for hours together, you know how 
it feels, after climbing some craggy hill, or descending some 
sharp ravine, to come out upon a long, dull, level stretch of 
country, even although the fields on either side be fertile, and 
the road good. There is little to break the uniformity of the 
view. And yet, travel over the level you must, if you would 
get to your journe3''s end. So it is with me, friends ; be pa- 
tient, we are coming out upon the level of our ' ' historical 



\ 



15 

sketch," but we must move forward upon it, or el6e we shall 
never get through with the century. But we have one comfort. 
We ma}- get OA^er the ground a Httle faster, even as we can 
take longer strides over the plains, than over the hill-tops. 

The embittered feelings engendered by the war did not soon 
die away, for in June, 1783, we find the town unanimously in- 
structing their representative, Daniel Kingsbury, "to use his 
influence that all who have absented themselves from any of 
the United States, and joined with, or put themselves under, the 
protection of the enemies of the United States, be utterly de- 
barred from residing within this State." And in 1784, one 
Elijali Williams, who, as early as 1773, had been compelled to 
sto}) issuing writs in the name of George the 3d, (by his an- 
gr^^ fellow-townsmen) is seized and threatened with running a 
gauntlet of black beech rods ; and there is a violent riot oc- 
casioned b}' this attempt to maltreat him. The Court ia 
Charlestown, before which he appeared, next day, allowed him 
to transact his needful business, and then peaceably to leave 
the State. 

In 1788, Rev. Aaron Hall sits, as the delegate from Keene, 
in the Convention at Exeter, called for the discussion of the 
proceedings of the Convention which framed the United States 
Constitution, and his oration, delivered in Keene, on June 30, 
on which day Keene celebrated its ratification, is advertised in 
the New Hamj^sJiire Recorder. The same journal, upon Oct. 
14, 1788, states that the dedication of the new meeting house 
in this town, will be on Wednesday, the 'iDth, when a sermon, 
suitable to the occasion, will be delivered by Rev. Aaron 
Hall. This church stiU stands, although twice remodelled. 

We also find that some customs could be abandoned in the 
eighteenth, as well as in the nineteenth century, when we read 
that " Isaac Wyman, begs leave to inform the public, that he 
shall not in future vend any liquors, but would be glad to serve 
travellers with boarding and lodging, and the best of horse-keep- 
ing." To all the items in this last clause, Rev. Dr. Barstow 
is understood, (as he at length occupied this very house) to 
have been faithful, horse-keeping included, although his guests 
may have been chiefly' of a clerical cast. Did Isaac " feel it in 
his bones " that the soul of this staunch friend of Temperance 



Iff . 

was marching on towards this planet, and so conclude thus 
early to " set his house* in order" for him? 
. This Nev) Hampshire Recorder, to which allusion has just 
been made, first appeared in 1787, being printed b}^ James D. 
Griffith. The column nowadays headed "Poetry," was de- 
nominated by " Griffith " " The Parnassian Packet," seeming 
by its designation to challenge a lofty flight, on the part of 
Pegasus. Of this challenge he seems to have availed himself 
in these stanzas, which I extract from a contribution to the 
" Packet " about nine years iDefore the death of Washington^ 
to whose virtues it refers : 

"And when lie drops this earthly crown, 
He's one in Heaven of high renown, 
He's deified, exalt him liigh,. 
He's' next unto the Trinit3^ 
I My language fails to tell his worth, 

Unless in Heaven, he is the fourth, 
This tribute due to Washington, 
Exalt him, every mother's son!" 

In the whimsical inteiTOgatory of our own day: — " How's 
that for high?" In the "Parnassian Packet" the Father of 
his Country is evidently made to rank the angel Gabriel. 
Literature appears also not to have been neglected by 
Mr. Griffith, for we find (printed upside down to attract at- 
te'ntion) this advertisement : " That Ruby of inestimable value, 
The oeconomy of human life, translated from an Indian man- 
uscript, written by an ancient Brahmin, will be put to press 
within fifteen days. James D. Griffith." The same editor 
discloses the prince of sextons, in furnishing the obituary of 
one of that guild in Derbyshire, who, during his sevent}^ years 
pf service, according to his own statement, had "buried the 
parish twice over." An illustration of some of the difficulties 
which beset the craft in those daj^s, is afforded in the follow- 
ing paragraph from the same sheet : "As paper of the usual 
size could not be obtained at the paper mill for this day's pap- 
er, our customers will excuse the present size." 

On March 11th, 1799, the first number of the Neiv Hamp- 
shire Sentinel appears, Mr. John Prentiss, then twentj-one 

* It was in this house that the Trustees of Dartmouth College held their first 
meeting. 



17 

years of age, being its editor, a post which he honorably held 
for about forty-nine years, surviving twent3"-flve years after 
his retirement. " Payments," we read, " must be made quar- 
terly, to enable the editor to satisfy the demands of the paper- 
maker, the boarding-liouse, and various other necessary cred- 
itors. Wood, butter, cheese, grain, and almost every article 
used in a family, will be as acceptable as the cash, if brought 
in season. The editor promises to use ever}- customer well 
that will use him well," We find this advertisement : "Want- 
ed immediately : A Post-rider to circulate this paper in the 
towns of Surry, Alstead, Marlow, Washington, Stoddard, 
Sullivan, Packersfield, Hancock, Dublin, &c. A steady, 
active person ma}' find his account in immediately commencing 
this work." 

And now, as men curiously scan the annual rings in some 
venerable and prostrate oak, let us glance at some of these 
scars of time, as they give us occasional ghmpses into our 
local history, and into what was going on in the minds of our 
people. IIow tame must sidewalk and post-office, discussions 
have been in a community, which, in 1799, gave to Governor 
Oilman one hundred and seven votes, while the opposition 
rallied only two " scattering" votes ! But over the sea, for a 
score of years, matter was daily brewing for agitation, in our 
New England villages. No wonder that the Sentinel revelled 
chiefly in the publication of foreign news. Sixteen years be- 
fore the exile to Elba, we read, under date of March 18th, 
1799 : " Confirmation of the death of Bonaparte. Seven ex- 
presses from Egii^t, report Bonaparte and a number of French 
officers assassinated." Nine days afterwards, the same paper 
says : ' ' Our readers will see that after report upon report, 
and confirmation upon confirmation, of the death of this 
mighty man, he still lives." We infer that once more there 
was suspense upon this subject, for in the issue of August 4, 
1799, we read, " of Bonaparte we hear nothing, whether he is 
dead or alive." But, Mr. Editor, you zvill hear from him, and 
he will live to go crashing through your columns of foreign 
intelligence for more than twenty years ! • 

A classic writer sa^^s, "There lived brave men before the 
time of Agamemnon ; " so, lest we should think that the 

3 



18 

Keenites had not began, in days unblessed with all our modern 
effulgence, to get at books, let us notice this advertisement 
under date of May 4, 1799 : " The Proprietors of the Social 
Library Society are requested to attend punctualh' to their an- 
nual meeting, on Monday next, at the Court House, at 2 p. m. 
Aaron Hall, Librarian." 

And see, this same year, to what flights of patriotism our 
neighboring town of Swanze}" rises, on her Fourth of Jul}- cele- 
bration, sevent3'-seven years ago. Here are two of the toasts : 
"The ever-memorable Fourth of July : may it be celebrated 
with tokens of joy and sentiments of gratitude, as the birth- 
day of American Independence, until time shall be no more." 
"The illustrious Washington ; ma}- his life be prolonged, and 
his sword abide in strength ; may fresh gems be added to his 
crown of glory, and he have a name better than that of sons 
and daughters !" Ah, Swanze}-, Westmoreland, Keene, Wal- 
pole and Suny, each in your own borders, rejoice and be glad 
while you raa}', exalt your great leader and pray for his 
lengthened ,life while you can. It is the last Fourth of July 
on which you will. The great patriot's life goes out with the 
ebbing tide of the eighteenth centur^^, in the waning da3-s of 
December. Wliat a night it was in Keene, when men learned 
that all was over! Listen: " Immediately- on receiving tlie 
afflicting tidings in this town, on Thursday evening, the citi- 
zens caused the bell to be tolled ; the doleful knell was heard 
until morning. Yesterday-, at twelve o'clock, the American 
flag was hoisted in mourning and the bell again tolled until 
two." But we ma}^ toll the bells with a deeper, heavier knell, 
if the da^^ ever comes, when the pure, nnbril:»ed patriotism of 
men like Washington, exists only as a shadowy tradition of a 
former age ! 

On the following twenty-second of F'ebruar}^, a more elabo- 
rate observance of the occasion took place, reproduced in 
Mr. Hale's Annals. 

What a man "leaves," when he dies, is still sometimes a 
topic of discussion in the community. But in 1802, we find 
the record, in the Sentinel^ of the death of a patriarch whose 
accumulated treasures are recorded, although somewhat of a 
diflferent character from an}- California "Bonanza." At Al- 



19 

stead, Ml-. Joseph Hatch, aged 84, ''left one hundred niid 
twenty grand and great grand-children." How closel}'^ bound 
together the scanty villagers were in that early day, is affect- 
ingl}' shown from the following incident : For Avhat means, in 
August 1803, this procession of five hundred people as they 
move toward the burying-ground ? Two little sisters, Roxana 
and Mary Wright, mistaking the floating moss in the Ashuclot 
River for solid earth, were swept away by the cm'rent, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Phineas Wright find that the whole village are 
mourners with them. 

A suggestive commentary upon legislation, is afl^brded thus 
early, as we read among the chronicles of 1803, the appeal of 
a Mr. Samuel Ewalt to his constituents in another State, that 
inasmuch as he has fallen from his horse, and is rendered inca- 
Xidhle of business^ he thinks that he is just the man for them to 
send to the Legislature ! And wh}-, friends and neighbors, is 
illness still found among us, and wh}' do the Doctors still lin- 
ger within our borders, when, even seventy-three 3'ears ago, 
so priceless a discover^' had been made as that of " Dr. Jona- 
than Moore's Essence of Life," which we are assured "is 
good in ahnost every case of disease, and will be the means of 
snatching thousands from the jaws of death. Whooping cough 
cured in a week." '' Some persons," we are informed, " will 
bear double the dose that others will," a statement which 
has just enough of a tinge of m3stery and horror, to make 
the remedy more fascinating. 

Li 1808, the following vote in town meeting gives us a 
glimpse into the existing I'elatious at that period between church 
and State : "Voted, to grant fifteen dollars to purchase velvet 
to cover the pulpit cushion." Under date of Februarj' 17, 
1810, we read of the beginning of Dr. Amos Twitchell's forty 
years' career as a renowned surgeon and physician, in Keene, 
through the following advertisement: " Dr. Amos Twitchell 
luis removed from Marlboro' to Keene, and has taken a room 
at the house of Albe Cady, Esq., where he will punctually at- 
tend all commands in the line of his profession." What this, 
eminent man did while he lived, we all know. But now for a 
tale to match what we hear of the marvels wrought beyond 
tlie sea, by tlie relics of the Saints I A worthy matron once 



said to me, upon her recoveiy : "I suppose they had doubts 
about my getting up, and I know I had doubts, myself. Well, 
they kept urging me to send for a Doctor, and at last I 
almost gave in to them. But just then, as I fixed my eyes on 
the likeness of Dr. Twitchell, all that he had said to me 
about my being no case for medicinerand Doctors, came back 
to my mind. So, as I set my eyes firm on the picture, I got 
strength to say ' No.' And finally, I may say, sir, that it was 
Dr. Twitcheir s pic^wre that cured me." 

In 1813, on June 7th, it appears that hailstones fell, one 
inch and a quarter in diameter, in Keene, and that on the 
next morning the ground was covered with them to the depth 
of three inches. In the procession that 3'ear, upon the fourth 
of July, we find that there were forty boys, each with a por- 
trait of Washington suspended round his neck. 

On May 28, 1814, Rev. Aaron Hall writes to the town : 
"■ Sensible of m^' age, and often infirmities of body, it is my 
earnest desire to have a colleague settled to help me in the 
work of the Gospel ministr}', provided it can be a voluntarj' 
thing with church and town, and for the mutual liarmony and 
peace of both." In this connection, how touching is the re- 
cord which not long afterwards follows : 

" September 23, 1814. Voted, To give to the widow of 
the late Rev. Aaron Hall, all the minister tax from the time 
of his decease" (which occurred on August 12) "till March 
next." 

As we shall soon see, the passing awaj', at the age of sixty- 
two, of this genial pastor, was a signal for contentions hith- 
erto unknown among the people. Hon. Salma Hale testifies 
that " he was much beloved;" Rev. Dr. Barstow says that 
" he was universally respected." 

But before these gi-aver contentions began, the following 
town vote indicates that there were two sides also upon lesser 
questions. What would we not all give to be present and 
hear every word of the discussion which led to the follow- 
ing vote : 

"December 8, 1815. Voted, not to suffer a stove put in 
the meeting house, provided it could be done without anj- 
expense to the town." 



21 

This vote makes only more probable, what is attested as a 
positive occurrence, that a leading- man in the parish found 
the air so insupportable, (at a subsequent period) upon the 
Sunday after a stove had been introduced into the building, 
that he walked out of the church in hot rage, when a by- 
stander, upon careful examination, discovered that whatever 
inte^'nal fire had existed that morning, it was certainly not in 
the stove I 

In accepting a call to preside over the town, Mr. David 
Oliphant writes thus from Andover, March 28, 1815 : " It is 
a pleasing circumstance that amidst the tumults and convul- 
sions, which, for a few years past, have shaken the political 
world to its centre, the Kingdom of the Redeemer has been 
growing in strength, and graduall}' advancing to its summit 
of predicted glory." Alas, he little knew what tumults and 
convulsions would so soon centre around the Zion to which he 
had come. Hon. S. Hale simply records the fact of his ordi- 
nation upon May 24, 1815, and there his "Annals" stop. 

On April 24, 1817, when scarce two years of his rainistr}'' 
had expired, we find the town summoned to vote upon the fol- 
lowing article : ^ To see if the town will vote to dismiss the 
Rev. David Oliphant." 

In the course of a communication from a Committee of the 
First Church to the town, dated Ma}' 1, 1817, these words oc- 
cur: ^ Does not conscience advise you to refrain from this 
man, and let him alone, lest haply ye be found to fight even 
against God ! " 

Upon December 1, 1817, Rev. Mr. Oliphant writes, "While 
3'ou retain your present feelings towards me, I can neither en- 
joy peace nor happiness among 3'ou, nor overcome your pre- 
judices so as to be useful." Thereupon, not long afterwards, 
the relation is dissolved by aid of a council. An inspection 
of the church records vindicates Dr. Barstow's statement in 
his Half-century Sermon, that " there was not a union of the 
people in the settlement of Mr. Oliphant, and a remonstrance 
against it was presented by the minority." Moreover, Mr. 
Oliphant, when addressing us all at the dinner upon our Centen- 
nial Anniversary, in 1853, under the tent where Mr. George 
W. Ball's dwelling now stands, on Main street, said in a 



22 

graceful and cheerful way, that when he came here he was n 
Tcry young man, and that doubtless he should act differently in 
some respects, were he to begin over again. His personal 
character was alwa3's regarded as unblemished. He was soon 
afterwards, for sixteen 3'ears, pastor of a church in Upper 
Beverlj', Mass., and subsequently settled in Maine. He died 
in 1872. 

Rev. Zedukiah Smith Barstow, was the last minister settled 
b}' the town. He was ordained on Jul}' 1, 1818. In accepting 
the call, he sa^s, " To whom shall an inexperienced advent- 
urer on life's troubled and tremulous ocean look for counsel 
and direction ? The ocean is tempestuous, while the voyage 
for eternity is hazardous beyond comprehension ! " When the 
"adventurer" had completed his fifty-five years' residence 
among us, Ms st^de had loug before become more compact and 
vigorous. In 1824, six years afterwards, the " Keene Con- 
gregational Societ}^" known more familiarly' as "Unitarian," 
was organized, being chiefly composed of secqders from the 
First Congregational Society. We might infer that a division 
of theological sentiment, so naarked as was developed during 
Rev. Mr. OUphant's ministry, would not be quickly harmon- 
ized. Circumstances minutely recorded in pamphlets printed 
at the time, led to the withdi-awal of the dissentients, to whom, 
in 1823, the church is voted for five Sundays, and in 1826 for 
thirteen, and in 1827 for seventeen Suuda3's. But in 1828 
the First Congregational Society' secures the full use of the 
building, upon certain conditions, the chief of which consist 
in paying seven hundred and fifty dollars, to the seceders, and 
agreeing to remove the church edifice to the rear, from the 
common, and thus securing effectuaU}- the bounds of Central 
square, as they now are. 

As an efficieut member of the School Committee for man}- 
years, as a life-long advocate of Temperance, as an indefati- 
gable trustee of Dartmouth College, Dr. Barstow is remem- 
bered; and especially as a friend and neighbor whose S3'mpa- 
thies widened and deepened as his years rolled on. He died 
March 1st, 1873, aged %'2^ having for upwards of forty years 
retained the sole charge of his Society. Upon the fiftieth 
anniversary' of his settlement, there was a dinner in his honor 



•>3 

at the town luiU, subsequently to the delivery of his appro- 
priate historical discourse in the church.* 

We might gladly follow the fortunes of this church, since, 
and the fortunes of the various churches in our city, six of 
which have edifices of their own wherein to worship. But we 
ma}' suppose them to be competent to make their own records"; 
at an}- rate, the time will not permit us to pursue the thread 
of our local ecclesiastical history- further than it is identified 
with the town as a corporation. 

Keene was not slumbering in ^eare gone by, quite so much 
as the youth of to-da}' ma^' imagine. So early as October 6, 
1819, upon the second anniversary' of the Cheshire Agricul- 
tural Society, three hundred and fiftj-six dollars wexe paid 
out in premiums. 

In Faulkner & Colony's office, whose woollen mill, founded 
In' another generation of the same name, has so long giveu 
emplo^'ment beneficial to so man}' people, ma}' be seen a piece 
ef the first water-wheel which was set up near that spot in 
1776, by EUphalet Briggs. 

In 1814, the proprietors of the New Hampshire Glass 
Company are asked to meet at Salem Sumner's Tavern, b}' John 
Elliot, clerk. Their factor}' was on the common, at the upper 
part of Washington street. Twenty-five years ago its even- 
ing lights gleaming through the windows and crannies of the 
old building, still blazed upon the outer darkness. 

In 1817, Justus Perry advertises " a complete assortment 
of glass bottles at the Flint Glass Factory, in Keene, and at 
much lower prices than the Hartford bottles." His stone 
Iniilding was on Marlboro' street. About the year 1800, Abi- 
jah Wilder advertises that he has patented a new and useful 
improvement in sleigh-runners, and in 1813 ''A. & A. AVilder 
offer patent wheel-heads at twelve dollars a dozen." These 
were made, it appears, in the old wooden store-house, near 
Faulkner & Colony's saw-mill. The tan-yard on Main street 
is an evidence that this industry is not a thing of yesterday 

* Seven weeks afterwards, (on August 19, 1868) occurred the Golden AVcdding 
of Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Barstow, when numerous guests assenil)led at his homestead, 
—the old Wvman Tavern already referred to. We may here add that the North 
room of this mansion, witnessed the consultMtion, in 1775, ( the evening previous 
to the march ) of the conHKUiy \\ hicli, under Capt. Isaac Wyman, set off for Lex- 
ington, from " the green " in front of this building. 



'24 

among us, being established by that man of enterprise, tne late 
WiUiam Lamson, who died between forty and fifty years since. 
It is now a quarter of a eentuiy since our first steam-planing 
mill was established. And if at an early period there was not 
so much recreation afforded by the spectacle of the drill of 
fire companies, the announcement, in 1815, by Isaac Parker, 
captain, that " the Keene Light Infantry meet for practice,' 
indicates that some sort of drill was going on here. It was 
as the commander of this company-, that General James Wilson 
delivered the fourth of July oration more than forty years 
since, standing, as he tells me, in the pulpit of the old church, 
in his militarj" equipments. 

It may surprise some of us to read an advertisement so 
early as August 27, 1835, of the " Keene Railroad Compau}'," 
Salma Hale, Samuel Dinsmoor, Justus Perry, Phineas Han- 
derson and John A. Fuller being " Commissionei's." The 
stockholders make choice of seven directors. It is stated that 
" the road is expected to strike the Massachusetts Line in 
the direction of Lowell or Worcester.". How different an as- 
pect, alread}^, has the Cheshire, actually completed thirteen 
years after that period, together with the Ashuelot Railroad, 
not long afterwards, given to Keene? And when we place by 
the side of this railroad gift, secured for us at so great a 
sacrifice on the part of its projectors, our * Goose Pond water, 
which the people love so well that the}' feel loth to coax it 
to find any way out of town if it will only come in, we may 
feel that with the addition of gas and the telegraph, we of the 
nineteenth century, can, on the whole, as regards the material 
comforts of life, keep rather more than abreast of our fathers. 
And yet it did not cost these men as much to travel fifty years 
ago, as we might now suppose. Under date of July 2G, 1825, 
we read these words, " Seats may now be had from Walpole 
to Saratoga for the trifling some of one dollar and fifty cents." 
In 1834, appears the announcement, " The North Star Line 
of Coaches will take passengers from Keene to Boston for 
$2.50, and to Lowell by the same price." '' B3' taking this 
line," it is is added, " 3'ou are but twelve hours on the way 

* The first report made by any town committee on the subject of " Water," 
bears date April 14, 1860. 



25 

from Boston to Keene. Try it ! " Three 3'ears earlier, in 
1831, appears this inviting programme, " Connecticut River 
Valley Steamboat Company. Leave Bellows Falls, Walpole, 
Westmoreland, for Hartford every Monday ; Putney, C-hester- 
field, Brattleboro, Vernon, and Hinsdale every Tuesday ; 
Northfield and Gill every Wednesda}'. Return Boats leave 
every Monday." 

In 1840, appears a notice of the annual meeting of the 
" Keene Thief Detecting Association." When it was formed, 
and how long it lasted, we do not know. It is, at all events, 
plain that Keene has not alwa3-s been slumbering as regards 
its great moral interests. 

Look at the subject of Temperance. Let us abundantly 
rejoice at the existence of a " Reform Club," organized in our 
city during this centennial year, and numbering more than 
twenty-4ve hundred, strong, which has aroused us from our 
transient lethargy. Rev. Dr. Barstow used to say that when 
he came hither in 1818, he found the custom existing, of pro- 
viding "spirit" at funerals, for the "'bearers," and that he 
steadfastly resisted it. Under the date of 1820, the Town 
Records contain this vote : • *■ In order to remove a principal 
cause of pauperism. Voted, that the. Selectmen be requested 
to see that the laws relating to licensed and unlicensed houses 
be strictly enforced, and to take such other measures for the 
suppression of intemperance, as to them may seem advisable." 

In 1829, the " New Hampshire State Temperance Society" 
was formed. The late Hon. Thomas M. Edwards was choos- 
en vice president of this Society in 1835. In 1831 we find 
in Keene, the "Society for the promotion of Temperance," with 
Dr. Amos Twitchell for president, and * Rev. T. R. Sullivan 
secretary. In 1836 we perceive a notice of the meeting of 
the " Young People's Association for the Promotion of Tem- 
perance." 

Upon October IGth, 1841, the " Keeuc Total Abstinence 
Association" is formed, with six hundred signers, Hon. Salma 
Hale, president. This Society continued its existence more 



* At the centennial dinner Rev. Dr. Barstow alluflefl to Mr. S. as " The distin- 
guished Thomas Russell Sullivan. He died near Boston, in December, 1862, aged 
6.3. While in Keene he edited The Liberal Preacher. 

4 



26 

than ten years. The " Cheshire Count}' Washington Total 
Abstinence Society," of which the late Dr. Amos Twitchell 
was president, held meetings until within about ten ^^ears, and 
has never been formally dissolved. From 1852 to 1855, 
there were numerous lectures upon this subject delivered 
among us ; but after the enactment of the desired law, there 
was too great a disposition to lean too hea\-ily upon their new 
ally. Yet the " Sons of Temperance," the "CTOod Templars," 
the " Keene Temperance League"and the "Keene Temperance 
Alliance," have been sending forth gleams of hght, at inter- 
^■als, into the moral wilderness of Intemperance. 

On March 15, 1848, some eight years before the enactment 
of a prohibitory law, a ballot was taken in town meeting upon 
this question : " Is it expedient that a law be enacted b}^ the 
' General Court,' prohibiting the sale of wine or other spiritu- 
ous liquors, except for chemical, medicinal, or meciianical pur- 
poses ? " The Town Records show that the vote stood — yeas 
183, nays 95. 

In 1764, it appears from Hale's Annals, that the town voted 
six pounds sterling to defray the charges of a school, and in 
1766, it is " voted that the securit}" for the money given to 
the town by Captain Nathaniel Fairbanks, deceased, the in- 
terest of which was for the use of a school in this town, be 
delivered to the care of the town treasurer, and his successors 
in office for the time being." Judge Daniel Newcomb is cred- 
ited by Josiah P. Cooke, Esq., in Hale's Annals, with having 
founded a private school about 1793, mainl}' at his own ex- 
pense ; and as the best friend of ' ' good learning " that the 
town had. " In 1821 the Town Records state that it is voted 
that the town will, at their annual meeting, in each year, 
choose five or more suitable persons to constitute a committee 
of examination, whose duty it shall be to examine those per- 
sons who shall offer themselves as instructors of the public 
schools within the town; and in 1823, it is voted that Zede- 
kiah S. Barstow, Aaron Appleton, John Elliot, John Prentiss 
and Thomas M. Edwards, be a committee to examine teach- 
ers, agreeably to the vote of the town." 

In 1828, we find from the Town Records, that there was an 
endeavor to establish a high school. Rev. Z. S. Barstow, Rev. 



Thomas Russell Sullivan, pastor of the " Keene Congregafioiv 
al (Unitarian) Society," Gen. Justus Perry, Aaron Hall (son 
of the deceased minister of that name) and Azel Wilder, being 
a committee on that subject. It was also "voted that the 
instructor of this school shall not endeavor to inculcate, in 
school, doctrines peculiar to an}' one religious sect, nor dis- 
tribute to his scholars any religious publication." It was 
agreed that the school might be kept during the first year, 
seven, and during the second year, eight months," "which," il 
was urged, "is at least three and four months longer than a 
school has usually been kept by a master." It appears from 
minutes kept by the late Dr. Barstow. (secretary) that after 
two or three months spent in writing to the presidents of 
Dartmouth, Amherst, Middlebuiy, and Yale Colleges, Mr. 
Edward E, Eels, a graduate of Middlebury College, was en- 
gaged as high school teacher for two months, at $25 a month, 
independent of board. His term expired Januar}' 29, 1829. 
Subsequently, Mr. A. H. Bennett was the instructor for three 
months, " at $40 a month, including board." So short-lived 
was this school. 

The next time we hear of a high school, it has leased, in 
1853, the Keene Acadenn- building, erected about sixteen 
years previous, and taken its i)rincipal, the efficient William 
Torrance, with ]Miss Louisa P. Stone, of Newburyport, as as- 
sistant. Mr. Torrance, two 3'ears afterwards, died. The pur- 
chase of this Academy edifice was afterwards secured by pro- 
cess of law. Wliat would the persons, who, forty-seven j'cars 
ago, found it so hard to raise $300 dollars a year for a high 
school teacher, have said, could the}' have seen, in vision, our 
new and spacious high school building, completed this j'ear, at 
a cost of about $50,000? 

We find that at the " State Common School Convention " at 
Concord, June 0th, 1843, the meeting was called to order by 
Hon. Salma Hale, of Keene, and that the committee for 
Keene were Hon. S. Hale, Rev. A. A. Livermore (who suc- 
ceeded Rev. T. R. Sullivan, in 1836) and Mr. Isaac Sturte- 
vant. *Mr. Livermore's services to the town in behalf of edu- 

*Mr. Livermore was the author of a Commentary upon the Gospels, "Acts, " 
and "Romans;" of a Prize Essay, solicited by the American Peace Society, and 
a volume of Sermons. 



28 

cation and temperance were unstinted. He was a man made 
to be loved. On May 11th, 1843, an address Avas delivered 
at the annual meeting of the " Cheshire Common School Asso- 
^ciatioii, at Marlboro', by William P. Wheeler, which appears 
to have been published. Thus early did this lamented advo- 
cate, whose loss is so fresh, seek to identif^^ himself with the 
well-being of the community. Mr. W. .S. Briggs has shown 
me "The Keene Directory for 1831," from which it appears 
that the number of ' ' scholars " that year was seven hundred 
and sixty-eight. In 1875, the number was one thousand four 
hundred and forty-seven. 

In 1845, and for a short time previous, a " Teachers' Insti- 
tute " was established in the countj-, by private subscription. 

On March 12, 1850, Keene votes seventy-five dollars for a 
" Teachers' Institute," on condition of theco-operation of other 
towns in the county. 

Yet any word, however brief, concerning educational mat- 
ters in Keene, would be incomplete, which did not chronicle 
the " School for Young Ladies and Misses," in which, under 
date of 1817, Miss Fiske and Miss Sprague advertise that they 
shall ' ' pay all possible attention to the improvement of the 
manners, morals and minds of their pupils." 

On April 11, 1811, at the age of twenty-seven. Miss Catha- 
rine Fiske began her school in Keene, which, in May, 1814, 
under the designation of "The Female Seminary," was con- 
ducted for twenty-three years, with signal success, until her 
death in 1837. Miss Fiske had been engaged in teaching for 
fifteen years, before coining to Keene. Rev. Dr. Barstow, in 
an obituary sketch, published in the Boston Recorder for Sep- 
tember 1st, 1837, estimates that during the thirty-eight years 
of her service, more than two thousand five hundred pupils 
came under her care. He commends especially ■• her tact in 
eliciting the dormant energies of some minds, and the stimu- 
lus afforded to those that were apt to learn." One friend of 
mine had scarcelj^ set foot in Canada, when a lady said : "So 
you are from Keene? / was once there myself, at Miss 
Fiske's school ! " Another friend found that she had scarce 
reached Spain, when she was favored even there, with some 
reminiscence of Miss Fiske's school. Miss Withington, after- 



29 

wards the late Mrs. Stewart Hastings, and Miss Barnes, now 
Mrs. T. H. Leverett, were among the teachers associated with 
Miss Fiske in her school. Miss Withington conducted it for 
a while after Miss Fiske's decease. 

The Director}- of 1831 records the existence of the Cheshire 
Athenaeum, with six hundred volumes ; Joel Parker, president. 
The " Keene Book Societj-," which had existed for a num- 
ber of years previous, reports Rev. T. R. Sullivan, as presi- 
dent, Salma Hale, and S. Dinsmoor, Jr., as executive com- 
mittee, George Tilden as treasurer and hbrarian, J. W. 
Prentiss as secretary, with two hundred and seventy-five vol- 
umes. The "Keene Forensic Society and Lj^ceum" (Joel Par- 
ker president) also greets our eyes on these pages. Ten years 
later, we find a discussion advertised on the part of the " Keene 
Lyceum," upon this subject : "Is Great Britain justified in her 
war against China?" Evidently, without the intervention of 
a distant " Lecture Bureau," the minds of the residents were 
not in complete stagnation, while the}- had a Lyceum and De- 
bating Society, marshalled by such a man as Joel Parker. 

Our later ' ' Keene Athenaeum " was established in 1 859 . The 
"Free Public Library" in which is was merged, and which is sup- 
ported by an annual grant* from the city, (which name the old 
town took upon herself in 1874) now numbers about three 
thousand A-olumes. Might not steps have been taken still 
earlier, toward founding such a library, had Keene devoted 
her share of the famed United States " Surplus Revenue" in 
a way different from what is indicated, in the following vote? 

" Voted," March 8th, 1842, " That the public money of the 
United States, deposited with the town, by the Act of January 
13, 1837, and all interest which has accrued thereon, be di- 
aled equally among those persons, being American citizens, 
who were residents in the town on the first day of January 
last, and who shall continue to reside therein until the first 
day of April next, and who shall be taxed in said town for 
theu- polls or ratable estate, the current year, and such other 
persons, being citizens and residents, as aforesaid, as may be 
over seventy years of age, (paupers excepted) and are there- 
by exempt from taxes." Seven thousand eight hundi-ed and 



* Five hundi-ed dollars in the year 1876. 



BO 

seven dollars, it appears, was the sum thus jingled into the 
pockets of the people. The town of Provincetown, Mass., 
put their share into a plank sidewalk over their drifting sands. 
The}' were determined to have some common benefit from the 
snoney, even although it were not an eminently intellectual 
one. 

How much the "Keene Harmonic vSociet}'" and the "Keene 
Musical Association," chronicled in the Director}' of 1831, 
paved the way for the prosperous annual Musical Conventions 
with which Keene has been identified for a score of years — 
who can tell ? * 

On March 9, 1847, on motion of Hon. Phineas Handerson, 
a committee was appointed to devise wa3's and means for 
building or procuring a town hall. The cost, aside from the 
tower and " extension," a much later expense, appears, from 
the committee's report of March 12, 1850, to have been : for 
land, $1,750; whole cost, including land, $15,816.89. 

The building erected by the '' Cheshire Pro\adent Institu- 
tion for Savings "f a few 3'ears since, is a fine monument to this 
beneficent enterprise. It is seldom that for more than two 
score years, a treasurer is spared to witness the extending 
sweep of such a movement, and even to see a second institu- 
tion| of kindred character. But Mr. George Tilden, who 
handed their books to the depositors in "the day of small 
things," now renders the same office to the grand-children of 
many whose hands have long since crumbled into dust. 

The "Natural History Societ}'," organized a few years since, 
has served to develop a wholesome zeal for the study of na- 
ture on the part of our youth, and has held its meetings with 
marvellous assiduity, and is steadily collecting a museum, 

A " Society for the Better Protection of Animals" was or- 
ganized last year, at the urgent entreaty of the late Mrs. L. 

*This 1831 Directory mentions the Farmers' Museum newspaper as established 
in 1828. In addition to the oft quoted New Hampshire Sentinel, the American 
Neios, conducted by the late Benaiah Cook, was in circulation in 1851, when the 
writer came to Keene, Mr. H. A. Bill was then the editor of tlie Cheshire He- 
publican. Tlie Sentinel and the Republican have long had sole possession of the 
field. 

t This Banlj was chartered in July, 1833, and went into operation in September, 
with Mr. Tilden as treasurer. Its deposits are now about $2,000,000. 

X The " Keene Five Cents Savings Bank," established in 1868. Its deposits now 
amoxmt to $714,000. Let posterity understand that we have also, four " National 
Banks " in Keene. 



31 

M. Haudersoii, our lamented postmistress, and was largely 
aided in the maturing of its constitution by the late Hon. 
WiUiam P. Wheeler. 

On March 14, 1860, the town accepts the one thousand dol- 
lar bequest of the late David A. Simmons, of Roxbnry, Mass., 
(a native of Keene) " toward the rehef and comfort of such 
of the poor of the town, requiring assistance therefrom — es- 
pecially the aged and infirm ; " a condition of the bequest 
being that the selectmen shall keep the same well invested, 
and distribute only the income. 

A residence of a quarter of a century among you, prompts 
me to say, that I have never known the place for which its resi- 
dents cherished a greater attachment. How dear these hills 
and forests and streams are to them ! 

Rev. Dr. George G. Ingersoll,* (who, in 1850, retired hither 
for the last tliirteen 3'ears of his life) in a poem recited at the 
centennial dinner, in 1853, after we had hstened to Hon. Joel 
Parker's address at the town hall, exemphfies this strong local 
attachment, in these words : 

•• The Kefue that was, dream of au ear.ier year, 
Its very name was music to my ear. 
Like some sweet, far-oft", visionary scene, 
My very name for Fairy-Land was "Keene." 
The Keene tliat is, pride of Ashuelot vale, 
With heart and tongue, I bid thee hail ! 
Wliere better seek, where better hope to And, 
Rest for the frame, yet not to starve the mind? 
lu this sweet spot where Nature does her part 
To meet the earnest cravings of the heart, 
With friends and books and blessed memories,— 
One might, with Heaven's b'essings, look for peace, 
Beneath our hills which rise on either side. 
By sparkling streams, which through our valley glide." 

A most interesting feature in the life of Keene, lias been 
the semi-annual terms of the Court. From tlie lips of Judges 
no longer living, I have rejoiced to hear the testimony, that 
the manners of our court room, the professional courtesies of 
the members of the bar, one toward another, were in refresh- 

* He was tlie only son of Major George Ingersoll, Comniauder at West Point, 
X. Y., from 171)G to 1801. Major Ingersoll died six weeks alter retiring to Keene 
in ISOo, when his son George was but eight years old. 



32 

iag contrast to what might be witnessed here and there in 
other quarters of the State. May the same spirit go into the 
new century ! Keene has furnished six members of Congress, 
all from this profession ; Peleg Sprague, Samuel Dinsmoor, 
Senior, Joseph Buffum, Salraa Hale, James AMlson, Jr., and 
Thomas MacKay Edwards. 

Samuel Dinsmoor, and his son Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., have 
been the only Governors elected from Keene ; Levi Chamber- 
lain of the Cheshire bar, being at one time the opposing candi- 
date, of the latter. Mr. Chamberlain, well knowing that in 
Keene the men of his own political stripe preponderated, playfully 
suggested, with his characteristic mirth, that to avoid putting 
the State to so much trouble, Mr. Dinsmoor and he had best 
" leave the case out" to the decision of the friends and neigh- 
bors by whom they were best known ! 

It was a memorable scene, when in the sunlight of the 
afternoon of Ma}' 20th, 1861, the late Ex-Governor Dinsmoor 
stood upon the platform erected for the occasion, on Central 
Square, and, in pi'esence of a multitude, said, as he introduced 
to them Hon. James Wilson, still happil}' spared to us, (both 
decorated with the red, white and blue ;) " Amid the general 
gloom which pervades the communit}', there is, yet, one cause 
for congratulation, — that we at last see a united North." 
Representing differing political organizations, these honored 
men served to typify the patriotism, which, in that trying hour, 
fused so man}' hearts in one. How the women, moved with 
a common purpose, toiled week after week, year after year, in 
connection with the "Soldier's Aid Society," or to help the 
benevolent work of the United States Sanitary Commission !* 
How like romance sound some of the surprises caused by the 
handicraft of the New Hampshire women. f A Dubhn soldier- 
boy, in his distant hospital, gains strength to scan the names 
inscribed upon his album-quilt, and is strangely stirred, as the 



* So early as March 11, 1862, the town votes three thousand dollars for the relief 
of wives, children, or parents of volunteers. 

t After the subsidence of the war, live hundred dollars a year were paid by a 
combination of persons in the various religious societies, for" two or three years, 
to the " Keene Freedman's Aid Society." The"Ladies' Charitable Society" unites 
as it has for many years, the sympathies of all the parishes. The " Invalids' 
Home" has been lately founded chiefly by the efforts of the "Keene Congi-ega- 
tional " (or Unitarian) "Society ; its chief benefactor being the late Charles Wilson, 
who left to the Home the sum of one thousand dollars. 



33 

names grow more aud more familiar, until at last he sees the 
hand-writing of his own mother. 

As we recall those memorable days, how that company of 
the Second Regiment, moving forth from our railroad station, 
at the signal of prayer, comes back to our minds, and those 
tents of the New Hampshire Sixth, as for weeks together, 
they whitened the plains beyond the Ashuelot ! How shall 
I speak of the courage, the patience, the devotion of such 
men ? I abandon the attempt. In summer and winter, week 
in and week out, thej" have their perpetual orator. There he 
stands in brazen panopl}' of armor ! If ^-ou have never heed- 
ed him, you will not heed me ! But in his meditative attitude, 
to me he speeks, not wholly of the storm-cloud of battle, nox 
of freedom dawning upon millions of a once enslaved race ; 
he seems to dream besides, of brighter days for his countiy, 
days when ' ' men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, 
and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up 
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." 
The time shall come when no Uving tongue among their com- 
rades shall be left to tell of Lane and Leverett, of Metcalf 
and Flint, Crossfield and Rugg, and Howard and Cheney, 
and their associates, who returned, not alive, to the dear old 
home ! One by one, all who bore part in the gigantic con- 
test shall have passed onward. Yet even then, God grant 
that those silent lips ma}^ speak eloquently' to the future dwell- 
ers in this happy valle}', of those sons of Keene, who in behalf 
of their countr}^ presented "■ their bodies a living sacrifice." 

Ye living hosts of the departed, gathered invisibly with us 
to-day, \e who ploughed these stubborn furrows in years gone 
b}', 3'e, who watched for the midnight war-whoop, ye, who in 
later days, were summoned to the Held by the Revolutionary 
tocsin, or who flew to your Country's defence in tlie War of the 
Rebellion, pray that we may enter upon the new century de- 
termined to hold all who fill offices of honor and trust in the 
nation, to a rigid accountability, yet at the same time cherish- 
ing fresh faith in the expanding destinies of the Republic ! 
And ye, an unseen host, who are coming after, 3'e, who, a 
hundred years from to-daj', beguiled b}- your earth-dream, 
shall call us all. •' dead," we beg you not to forget us wholly, 



34 

as 3'ou, in your turn, gather here ! Here's a warm hand for 
you across the arches of the coming century- ! We pledge 
ourselves, God willing, to be mth you then, though your 
' ' eyes " should be ' ' holden " that 3^ ou shall ' ' not know " us ! 
Remember how dear this valley was to us ! It can be no 
dearer to you ! Cany education, temperance, literature, re- 
ligion, to a higher, purer pitch than we have ! And say 
"Amen," as we do, to these time-honored words of Sir Wm. 
Jones, which we leave with you as our benediction : 

" What constitutes a State? 
Not high-rais(!d battlement or labour'cl mound, 

Thick wall or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd ; 

Not bays and broad arm'd ports. 
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; 

Not starr'd and spangled courts 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 

No : — Men, high minded men. 
With powers as far above duh brutes endued 

In forest, brake or den. 
As beasts excel co'd rocks and brambles rude ; — 

Men who their duties know. 
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain, 

Prevent the long-aim'd blow 
And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain ; — 
These constitute a State I " 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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